Adopting sustainable practices in the finance department requires attention from planning to reporting results. The hardest part is the starting point: knowing how to prepare budgets, provisions and measure the inflow and outflow of resources. To have a basis, there is nothing better than studying the successful experiences of other companies.

With this in mind, we have prepared a list of 8 effective recommendations followed by large companies. Check it out and see which one can be adapted to your company!

1) Engage leaders in sustainability actions

Educating and engaging team leaders is the first step towards a financially sustainable company. Only with authentically motivated leadership will it be possible to attract and gain the trust of all employees in the company. To do so, we suggest that you do the following:

• – Create a high-level Sustainability Committee, to which other employees have easy access;
• – Develop a space on the intranet to discuss the topic, with suggestions, questions and ideas for actions;
• – Promote events focused on sustainable development.

2) Reduce costs

Make a plan for reducing costs in the short, medium and long term. Consider the performance of the department, employees and the company as a whole. Some tips for success at this stage are:

• – Have a dedicated professional responsible for planning cost reduction in these three scenarios;
• – This employee must have the freedom to move between different departments.

3) Track the results

You need to think about planning, execute what was proposed and always check the results during execution, and not just at the end of the work. Therefore, do:

• – Regular diagnostics;
• – Process review;
• – Performance verification;
• – Behavior assessment.

4) Generate value with sustainable actions

Sustainability is a value generator, not a cost, but seeing this side of things is not always so simple. That is why the finance department needs to prove the veracity of this statement to all sectors of the company, showing that it is possible to profit from these actions, always considering the social and environmental impacts generated by the company's activities. In fact, ignoring such impacts can result in heavy fines.

A good tip for implementing this is to create a checklist for each department with the following items:

• – Material reduction;
• – Low water consumption target;
• – Encouragement of collaborative carpooling (Carsharing);
• – Conscious use of energy;
• – Neutralization of carbon emissions;
• – Adoption of alternative energy sources.

Some items will not be suitable for all departments and can be removed from the respective checklists. However, it is important to try to keep the topics mentioned above in their entirety in the documents. Only remove them when they really do not make sense.

5) Show the positive impact of sustainable practices on the company

Presenting results is the most effective way to demonstrate the impact on your company’s business. Evaluate and measure what you can, so you have the numbers to show employees and leaders the benefits of implementing sustainable planning. Therefore:

• – Check the progress of actions in the company monthly;
• – Publicize achievements internally among all sectors and even to the external public. This generates value for corporations.

6) Do first, show later

Few things are as embarrassing as a person who talks and talks and talks, but when it comes to showing the results, nothing happens. The same thing happens in a company: both for internal and external audiences.

If your speech is incredible but doesn’t generate change, employees become discouraged. It’s even worse with customers: social media is a channel for quick condemnation. Any negative news reaches thousands of people in the blink of an eye.

7) Adopt new purchasing practices

It is essential to think about the chain. The supplier’s conduct regarding sustainability must be taken into account throughout the entire process. Likewise, it is not possible to think only about the short-term consequences of this relationship. In light of sustainable development, business relationships must always be examined from a medium- and long-term perspective. To achieve this goal, your company must:

• – Stimulate the expansion of the market in which it operates;
• – Practice appropriate and healthy payment policies for the entire market, not just for your business;
• – Train the Purchasing area so that they are able to select suppliers from the perspective of sustainable development;
• – Disclose sustainable purchasing guidelines;
• – Consider indicators such as: product life cycle, carbon emissions, energy, toxic materials, risk management, etc.;
• – Develop communication channels to notify suppliers about new guidelines implemented by your company;

8) Manage indicators and goals

A major challenge for a finance department focused on sustainability is to get other areas involved and show how sustainable practices can serve the company’s growth. It is still difficult to quantitatively measure the benefits brought in the short term, but qualitatively, there are a number of measures that you can implement, such as:

• – Identify areas of concern: high expenditure of resources, idle equipment, waste of materials, etc.;
• – Adoption of metrics and management systems to monitor progress;
• – Monitor compliance with sustainable operational processes via preventive and proactive internal control systems;
• – Present balance sheets quantifying and replicating gains;
• – Prepare a Sustainability Report to show to stakeholders.

Financial sustainability should not be seen as an obstacle to a company's growth strategies, quite the opposite. It is a new business model in which economic, environmental and social aspects are viewed from the same perspective of importance.

If you want to know more about the subject, download our Sustainability Guide – Finance and implement these actions in your company right now.